Alumni Update:

Gracie Rosenbach is the Rwanda Country Program Manager at the International Food Policy Research Institute, where she collaborates on the start-up and management of the Rwanda Strategy Support Program which supports the Government of Rwanda’s vision for accelerating agricultural transformation and rural development. She is based in Kigali, Rwanda.

Fellow Bio:

Gracie graduated from the University of Virginia in 2015, majoring in Psychology and minoring in French. She then continued for an additional year at UVA to obtain her Master of Public Policy in 2016. Gracie studied abroad for a Summer in Paris, and she traveled on her Spring Breaks on mission and research trips to Haiti and Turkey.  She recently completed an internship and consultancy with the USAID Africa Bureau and Water Office, with whom she partnered to complete her thesis on Water Programming in Rwanda, and traveled to Ghana, Rwanda, and South Africa to facilitate budget trainings. Gracie has also worked to manage and evaluate many USAID programs in Africa and around the world through her internship and consultancy with USAID implementing partners, DevTech Systems and Millennium Partners. She is excited to expand her international development experience by spending the coming year learning about the agriculture development sector and gaining field experience working for Olam International in Kampala, Uganda.

Gabriella graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a major in Agricultural Business, with a minor in Global Politics. Following her undergraduate coursework, she pursued a master’s in international agriculture at Oklahoma State University (OSU). While at OSU, Gabriella conducted comprehensive qualitative interviews with participants in the OSU African Entrepreneurs Fellowship program from Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda, representing various agricultural initiatives, women and youth empowerment organizations, and extension and education efforts. Gabriella’s research resulted in the completion of her master’s degree and thesis: ‘Post-Fellowship Experiences of African Entrepreneurs: Interpreting Impact a Year Later’.  In addition to her graduate coursework and research, Gabriella served as a Noble-Watoto Fellow in Uganda. Gabriella is passionate about agriculture and its impacts on communities around the world. She is thrilled to be a member of the PiAf community!

Fellow Bio:

Frankie (Boston College ‘07) graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a minor in Faith, Peace and Justice. Upon graduation he took a job as an accountant with La Jolla Bank in his hometown of San Diego, California. He earned a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University in 2010 and was selected to both the university’s international case competition team and its emerging leader program. He served the student body as president of Pepperdine Net Impact, a student club focused on sustainable business practices. In 2011, Frankie completed a Master of Public Administration at the University of Pennsylvania. Next year Frankie plans to use his knowledge of the private and public sectors to help develop infrastructure projects in Uganda.

Flannery is from Baltimore, MD and received a degree sociology and anthropology from Carleton College. At Carleton, she played ultimate Frisbee, co-founded the Carleton chapter of FACE AIDS, and served as a respondent to the HOPE Center crisis line for people who have experienced sexual or domestic violence. Interested in and passionate about human rights and global health, Flannery studied in Durban, South Africa for a semester, worked with Catholic Relief Services on the Haiti earthquake relief team, volunteered with Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore and biked across the country to raise funds for and awareness of FACE AIDS. While in Uganda next year, Flannery looks forward to finding the Kampala Frisbee team, exploring a new region of the African continent, and having countless new adventures with new friends.

Alumni Update:

Since making her way back to the US from Uganda, Flannery has done some Monitoring and Evaluation consulting work for PiAf and worked in investigations of police misconduct in NYC. She is now pursuing a joint degree in Law and Public Health at Vanderbilt and Johns Hopkins respectively, but is pining for a trip back to Uganda. She will leave Nashville for a year this June to complete the public health portion of her program. If anyone is in Nashville or Baltimore, please look her up!

Fellow Bio:

Flannery (Columbia ‘11) is an Urban Studies major from Baltimore, Maryland. While at Columbia, she was co-captain of the varsity lacrosse team, served as an editor of an urban affairs magazine, and spent some time teaching conflict resolution skills in a New York City middle school. In her free time she enjoys exploring cities, reading, and doing spin classes. She is excited to return to Africa for the first time since studying abroad at the University of Cape Town in 2009. In Uganda, Flannery is looking forward to learning more about the work at Invisible Children, becoming familiar with the culture of Gulu, and taking lots of pictures.

Alumni Update:

After her two-year fellowship in Uganda, Erin attended law school and began working as a litigation and international arbitration associate at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP. From 2011 to 2013, she had the opportunity to move back to Africa and live in Gabon, because her husband was posted there with the State Department. In 2013, they returned to D.C. and she is working again at Milbank.

Emma graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in May 2018 from Barnard College with a B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Emma’s interest in community activism began in high school when she was inspired to do something about littering in the empty lot next to the site of her fellowship at the Children’s Aid Society. She founded Project Flower Street, an environmental education and visual arts initiative designed to build self-esteem and foster neighborhood pride in children. By her sophomore year of college, Emma worked with over 500 children to create seven public outdoor art installations, made entirely of recycled materials. In college, Emma developed the initiative to focus on teaching hygiene through the visual arts. She implemented workshops in New York and Nicaragua using microscopes, growing bacteria, and fostering cross cultural communication between children from both countries. Some of the grants that have supported Emma’s initiatives include: ABC Summer of Service Awards, Davis Projects for Peace, Laura Bush Traveling Fellowship, and Tamer Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Emma is on the premed track and is thrilled to combine her interest in public health with environmental sustainability through her work with Princeton in Africa as a Fellow at The Kasiisi Project in Uganda.

Alumni Update:

After her fellowship, Emily spent another year working for Plan in the same capacity as a Technical Writer and took on some additional roles and responsibilities. She then returned to the US for a year to do some remaining coursework in order to apply to medical school. She is currently working for UCSF as Research and Training Coordinator for Kenya. She coordinates a program that facilitates medical and master’s students and residents to do clinical work or research here in Nyanza Province as well as connect researchers to one another since they have a multi-institutional research collaboration. She is based in Kisumu, Kenya until June this year, when she will go back to the US for medical school. She is not yet sure which school she will attend, though she has a couple of options already!

Fellow Bio:

Emily (Princeton ‘11) is an economics major with a certificate in African-American Studies from the San Francisco Bay Area, CA. During her time at Princeton she was a member of the varsity swim team, an active Cap and Gown member and occasionally bartended and tutored to pay the bills. Through Princeton she interned with the Global Fund in Switzerland, which sparked an interest in a career in global health and development.  Emily aspires to become a physician one day. While in Uganda next year, Emily looks forward to learning about and participating in local music and dance, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, and waking up to a new adventure every day.

Alumni Update:

Following her fellowship in Uganda, Emily spent another six years living in Kenya, DRC, Nigeria, Cambodia, and Liberia working on a series of global health initiatives for Population Services International, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and Liberia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. After graduating with an MBA from the Yale School of Management this spring, she will be moving to Minneapolis, MN to work for Medtronic, a global medical device innovation company, where she will focus on emerging markets strategy and technology for cardiac care initiatives.

Alumni Update:

Elizabeth has been a Research Associate with the UNDP Independent Evaluation Office since September 2018. Recently she had the pleasure of returning to her PiAf host country (Uganda) to assist with the country program evaluation of UNDP Uganda.

Fellow Bio:

Prior to her Princeton in Africa fellowship, Elizabeth worked as a Program Officer for HIAS, an international refugee protection NGO, where she assisted with refugee assistance programs in East Africa, Chad and Latin America and deepened her interest in issues of global migration, displacement, and integration. Previously, she worked in communications for POV, an independent documentary series on PBS which puts a human face on contemporary social issues. Elizabeth is a graduate of Wesleyan University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history and French Studies, focusing on issues of gender, race and identity during the colonial and post-colonial era. As an undergraduate she spent two semesters in Paris. A native of New York, she loves to travel, read and try new foods. For the next year in Kampala, she is looking forward to enjoying the legendary Ugandan hospitality, exploring the continent, and contributing to IRC’s work helping refugees go from “harm to home.”